Tree Conservation

The misguided practice of tree topping (also referred to as stubbing, dehorning, pollarding, heading, and by several other euphemisms) has risen to crisis proportions nationally over the last decade. Topping has become the urban forest's major threat, dramatically shortening the lifespan of trees and creating hazardous trees in high-traffic areas. The importance of trees to the urban and global ecology is only now becoming fully known and appreciated. This dawning has not yet been accompanied by adequate public education and sound public policy to ensure tree survival and our own safety. Topping won't work to keep trees small. After a deciduous tree is topped, its growth rate increases. It grows back rapidly in an attempt to replace its missing leaf area. It needs all of its leaves so that it can manufacture food for the trunk and roots. It won't slow down until it reaches about the same size it was before it was topped. You can't "stop" trees with topping. If you succeed, you have killed them. A topped tree must be done and re-done every few years-and eventually must be removed when it it dies or the owner gives up. Each time a branch is cut, numerous long, skinny young shoots (called suckers or waterspouts) grow rapidly back to replace it. They must be cut and re-cut, but they always regrow the next year making the job exponentially more difficult.

Proper pruning actually improves the health and beauty of a tree, costing you less in the long run. Topping also reduces the appraised value of your tree. A tree, like any landscape amenity, adds to the value of your property. The sight of a topped tree is offensive to many people. The freshly sawed-off tree limbs are reminiscent of arm or leg amputations. And the freshly-sawed look is just the beginning of the eyesore; the worst is yet to come, as the tree regrows a witch's broom of ugly, straight suckers and sprouts. The natural beauty of the tree's crown is a function of the uninterrupted taper from the trunk to ever finer and more delicate branches, and the regular division of the branches. Arborist considers the topping of some trees a criminal act, since a tree's 90-year achievement of natural beauty can be destroyed in a couple of hours. Topping destroys the winter silhouette of a tree. The regrowth of suckers or shoots will bloom poorly, if at all. Some trees will re-establish themselves after many years-but by then they will be the same size as before. Many topped trees are considered a total loss. According to Dr. Alex Shigo, world renowned scientist and author on the subject of arboriculture (trees), topping is the most serious injury you can inflict upon your tree. Severe topping and repeat topping can set up internal columns of rotten wood, the ill effect of which may show up years later in conjunction with a drought or other stress. Ironically, many people top their trees because they think it will make them safer. Topping creates hazardous trees. In many cities, topping is banned because of the public safety factor and the potential for lawsuits. Topping makes you appear to be a cruel or foolish person. Your friends know you better. But the more your neighbors come to understand topping for what it is, the lower you will fall in their esteem. You may top a tree to create a water view, but you should know that you have some friends and neighbors who probably won't say so because they are being tactful-who see a view of a butchered tree with water in the background.

Tree Topping

What is Tree Topping?Topping is the indiscriminate cutting of tree branches to stubs or lateral branches that are not large enough to assume the terminal role. Other names for topping includes "heading, tipping, hat - racking and rounding over".

The most common reason given for topping is to reduce the size of the tree. Often homeowners feel that their trees have become too large for their properties. People fear that tall trees may pose a hazard.Topping, however, is not a viable method of height reduction and certainly does not reduce the hazard. In fact, topping will make a tree more hazardous in the long term.